The invention relates to a holder for a beverage container. The holder is intended for installation in a means of locomotion, especially a motor vehicle. A beverage container is understood to be, for example, a beverage can, a beaker or a cup.
Holders of that kind are known in a multiplicity of different forms. Known holders have an insertion opening, in which the beverage container can be inserted. For the purpose of matching different diameters of beverage containers, compensating flaps are known, which are pivotally arranged at an edge of the insertion opening and are urged into the insertion opening under spring loading. When it is inserted, the beverage container pushes the compensating flap to the side to an extent that corresponds to its diameter.
The invention is based on the problem of proposing a holder for a beverage container, wherein the size of the insertion opening can be set.
In keeping with these objects and with others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of the present invention resides, briefly stated, in a holder for a beverage container, comprising two holding arms which engage around an insertion opening for the beverage container and are mounted so that they are pivotable in a lateral direction about pivot axes as pincers; and adjuster provided for a size of the insertion opening and contacting said holding arms at points spaced away from said pivot axes and also keeping constant a spacing of said holding arms from one another at the contact points, said adjuster having an adjustable spacing from the pivot axes of said holding arms.
The holder according to the invention has two holding arms, which may be, for example crescent-shaped and which engage laterally around an insertion opening for the beverage container, in this arrangement, it is not necessary to engage around a full circumference of the insertion opening; it is sufficient for the holding arms so to engage around an inserted beverage container that it is held between the holding arms securely and prevented from tipping. The holding arms mounted about pivot axes in the manner of pincers; they can pivot in a lateral direction. The phrase xe2x80x98can pivot in a lateral directionxe2x80x99 means that the size of the insertion opening, in particular its diameter changes when the holding arms are pivoted. The two holding arms can also have a common pivot axis. In accordance with the invention, the holder has an adjuster for the size of the insertion opening.
The adjuster contacts the holding arms at points spaced away from the pivot axes of the holding arms; it keeps constant the spacing of the holding arms from one another at the contact points. The contact points are the points at which the adjuster contacts the holding arms. The spacing of the adjuster from the pivot axes of the holding arms can be set, for example, by moving the adjuster. Changing the spacing of the adjuster, which adjuster holds the holding arms at the contact points at a constant spacing from one another, pivots the holding arms apart or together, in the manner of pincer jaws. Pivoting the holding arms modifies and sets the size of the insertion opening.
The invention has the advantage that the size of the insertion opening can be matched to a beverage container being inserted, a large size adjustment range being possible. A further advantage is that cups with handles can be inserted into the holder according to the invention when the holding arms do not completely surround the insertion opening.
The adjuster can, for example, contact edges of the holding arms in the manner of a clamp, or can, for example, engages in grooves, slots, slideways or the like in the holding arms by means of pins, sliding blocks or the like, in order to keep constant the spacing of the holding arms from one another at the contact points. In an embodiment of the invention there are provided on the holding arms two control surfaces, which face one another and the spacing between which changes in the direction of the pivot axes, for example in a wedge shape. The adjuster is arranged between the control surfaces. A spring element urges the control surfaces of the holding arms against the adjuster. When the adjuster is moved in the longitudinal direction of the gap between the control surfaces, the adjuster pivots the holding arms in contact with it and, as a result, modifies the size of the insertion opening.
When the spring element(s) subject(s) the holding arms to an inwardly directed force, that is to say in the direction of a smaller insertion opening, it is advantageous that the insertion opening can be set slightly smaller than the beverage container to be inserted. On insertion, the beverage container presses the holding arms slightly further apart against the force of the spring element and is held biased in the insertion opening between the holding arms. In principle, it is also possible for the principle to be reversed so that the spring element subjects the holding arms to an outwardly directed force and the holding arms are held by the adjuster so that they do not pivot out.
In an embodiment of the invention, for the purpose of matching to beverage containers of different heights, the holding arms are provided with height adjustment. In an embodiment of the invention, the height adjustment is achieved by means of the fact that the holding arms can be pivoted about a horizontal pivot axis.
The invention is described below in greater detail with reference to an exemplary embodiment illustrated in the drawing.